"You mean, of course, that I should offer to marry Donna Sabina," he said.
"What else could an honourable man do, in your position?"
"I wish I knew." Malipieri passed his hand over his eyes in evident distress.
"Do you mean to say that you refuse?" the Princess asked, between scorn and anger. "Are you so little one of us that you suppose this to be a question of inclination?"
Malipieri looked up again.
"I wish it were. I love your daughter with all my heart and soul. I did, before I saved her life last night."
The Princess's anger gave way to stupefaction.
"Well—but then? I do not understand. There is something else?"
"Yes, there is something else. I have kept the secret a long time, and it is not all my own."
"I have a right to know it," the Princess answered firmly, and bending her brows.